Route 280, Route 21 Interchange
Improvements
Project

Essex County

Traffic
Mitigation Plan

The New Jersey Department
of Transportation (NJDOT)
recognizes that a project
of this magnitude requires
a carefully planned, designed
and implemented construction
traffic mitigation plan
to provide safe traffic
flow through the project
area. The process of developing
the project's Traffic Mitigation
Plan (TM) Plan is consistent
with the requirements called
for under NJDOT's publication
on Traffic Mitigation Guidelines
for Work Zone Safety and
Mobility (2007).

Underlying the development
of the TM Plan are the following
objectives:

Maintain at acceptable
levels the flow of traffic
through the construction
area.

Minimize travel delays
experienced by motorists
during construction.

Educate
the public about the
purpose, objectives and
benefits of the project.

Encourage
motorists to use transit
and other alternative
modes and educate travelers
about the benefits of these
modes.

Reduce the number
of incidents within the
construction area.

To meet the above mitigation
objectives, various traffic,
highway, geometric and programmatic
measures will be evaluated
with input from Subject Matter
Experts (SMEs) from state,
regional and local agencies.
The TM Plan measures involve:

Public information program
to include: public
information meetings; brochures;
news releases; media advertising;
participation at community
events and opening an
information center near
the project site.

Travel
Demand Management (TDM)
program to maximize lane
capacities by reducing
the volume of traffic
through the construction
area. The program will
possibly include: ridesharing
marketing, incentives and
support services; transit
incentives and service
enhancements; park and
ride facility management/expansion
and employer outreach.

Coordination
with communities and
other stakeholders to establish
construction hours and
obtain variances for
noise abatement. This includes
coordinating traffic control
plans and construction
activities involving other
major highway work including
but not limited to the
Route 21/Chester Street
Bridge rehabilitation.

Mitigation
actions to avoid or reduce
construction impacts
to local businesses.

Incident
management program to
include: increased number
of safety
service patrols to assist stranded motorists
and clear incidents; use
of standby mobile command
vehicle for use during
major accidents; use
of a standby truck with
mounted attenuator to clear
incidents quickly and safely.
Event plans should also
be developed for managing
traffic around major events
occurring in the project
vicinity.

Coordination with various
NJDOT, regional and municipal
projects in the are also
on-going. Construction stages are being designed to maintain
as many lanes as exists
today during peak commute
periods.

Updated information about
project progress and site
conditions will be provided
via the project web site
and other forms of communication.